When Donald Trump became the President of the United States of America, many many people in India were extremely happy.
The reason for the happiness was that Donald Trump was promptly perceived by Indians to be Anti Islamic because of his rantings against Radical Islamic terror and the people of India, angry as they are against the policy of appeasement of minorities followed by successive Congress Govt's, found a readymade hero.
They loved him even more when our Prime Minister Narendra Modi cultivated a personal relationship with him.
So for all Indians, Trump was pro India. So, zapped they were by him, that they did not bother about his H1B visa policy which would hurt thousands of Indians.
Our government too had found plenty to like the Trump administration, including its emphasis on fighting radical Islamist extremism and its tough stance on Pakistan.
However, if one looks at real issues, the Trump presidency hasn’t been great for India.
1) His protectionist policies towards American have hurt Indian economy and his stance on radical Islamist terror has hurt Indian immigration visa-seekers more than all the Muslim countries put together.
2) Donald Trump had forced India to not buy cheaper oil from Iran and Venezuela.
3) Trump forced India to buy more expensive oil and gas from the United States, even pushing for long-term commitments that aren’t viable to us.
4) Despite the India-China border tensions, Donald Trump did not give India a waiver from an American law that threatens sanctions on countries purchasing arms from Russia.
5) Trump raised tariffs on imports from India, on everything from steel to rubber, causing a “mini trade war” with India.
6) He had removed preferential treatment given to Indian exports, further hurting the Indian economy at a time when it’s been bleeding.
7) The host of changes to US visa policies have made it harder for US firms to hire Indians on H-1B work visas as three quarters of the H-1B visas issued every year still go to India-born workers and the top seven Indian tech companies were reduced to picking up only 6% of the total visas under this programme.
This has hit the Indian outsourcing model hard.
In a frenzy and especially when you let your emotions cloud rational thinking, one loses the sense of proportion in making unbiased analysis.
That is what has happened with India's appraisal of Trump.